The Lidl-Trek team invited Dr. Boynton to join them at the 2024 Tour Down Under. As a sport scientist and performance consultant, Dr. Boynton had the unique opportunity to meet one of the most respected teams in the UCI World Tour, while also getting an intimate look at life inside the team during one of the sport’s most grueling early-season races.
Immersion in the Team Environment
Dr. Boynton was immersed in the team environment. Based at the Adelaide Hilton, he shared meals with the team. This offered valuable time to build rapport, observe the team dynamics, and engage in productive conversations about performance and the team’s protocols.
During the event, Dr. Boynton met with riders from both the men’s and women’s teams. These informal interactions inspired the creation of a custom-designed questionnaire developed to better understand the riders’ needs, habits, and preferences. The aim was to provide individualized insights that could support Lidl-Trek’s ongoing efforts to refine their high-performance strategies and communication with Trek corporate entities.
In the Team Car
One of the more exciting elements of the experience was riding in the team car during Stage 5 for a privileged view into the real-time execution of tactics, rider support, and the intense logistical coordination that defines elite-level cycling. Watching the race from inside the car underscored the complexities of in-race decision-making and helped inform the performance insights.
Scientific Contributions and Performance Insights
Dr. Boynton’s role at the Tour Down Under wasn’t just observational. He followed up by providing science-driven recommendations that could improve rider performance and elevate communication within the team’s broader support network.
- Pre-Cooling Optimization: He offered evidence-based suggestions on optimizing pre-cooling techniques—pointing out noteworthy shortcomings in the current pre-cooling literature, how teams were potentially misconstruing this literature, and how to account for these issues in practice with worldclass athletes.
- Heat Acclimation System: Recognizing the recurring challenge of heat for international teams during the competitive season, Dr. Boynton proposed a scalable, science-informed system to help efficiently heat-acclimate riders. His goal was to help the team better prepare for hot-weather races without compromising training quality or travel schedules.
- Improving Communication Channels: Serving as an outside voice, he also provided an objective perspective to help improve communication between the Lidl-Trek performance staff and Trek’s own research division (Trek Performance Research). Bridging the gap between applied sport science and technical R&D was a key focus of his involvement.
How to play “MoneyBall” in Pro Cycling
Perhaps the most intellectually exciting part of Dr. Boynton’s interaction with Trek was his presentation to Trek Factory Racing. Drawing on the concept of MoneyBall—the data-driven talent optimization strategy made famous in baseball—he proposed how similar principles could be applied to professional cycling. His talk covered how high-performance teams could outperform competitors with superior epistemological approaches to training and protocol development.
